So, today is a non-fiction day, and it was originally my intention to take my last non-fiction piece and split it into two parts. You know, the story about how I decided to become a writer. So, then, I was like, "Crap. What do I do now?" Well, seeing as how there are so many sites out there that talk about helping people finish their books, I thought I might take a whack at it and tell you all how it was that I managed to finish my first book Remnants of Chaos: Chaotic Omens. Buy it here. So, let's giddy up!
Today's topic is... Creative Non-fiction.
Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go!
I originally started writing Remnants of Chaos: Chaotic Omens in December 2007. I was inspired by a mixture of music from the band Nightwish and the video game series Devil May Cry. I had a vision for a story about demon slayers in a gothic setting with over-the-top action. It would be my first real try at writing a book. So, I went ahead and did some research on character names and came up with Azrael Chaos and Nissa Omen, I bastardized some Latin to make a monastic order, the Maleiorcum, and I was away. Problem is, a few weeks later I was done in by a crappy floppy disk. And it was right after I had written a spectacular scene, too.
I halted progress on the book for a year and three months. During that time, I did a lot of thinking about the book, the characters, the plot, and everything else. Finally, in about March or April of 2009, I twisted my parents' arm to buy me a high school graduation present, which I should have received two years earlier, and I got a laptop. A brand new Dell Inspiron 1545 with a red top, and it was beautiful. Definitely better than the HP POS I'm writing on now. I nicknamed it the Red Queen after Nero's sword from Devil May Cry 4, and not the CPU from Resident Evil. A few days later, I had downloaded some songs from my friend Alysa, and I re-wrote the first chapter of ROCCO in a single sitting all to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I then named the chapter "Ballroom Blitz" after The Sweet's song.
From there, I soldiered on. I shared parts of it with my friend Mary and with the members of my Youth Group, but I wasn't using an outline, and predictably, I stopped working on it. A year or two later, I was terribly bored one summer and as a result, depressed. Out of desperation, I turned back to ROCCO and taking inspiration from my recent stint with Unisoft's Assassin's Creed series, I aimed the book in the direction of Italy and introduced a character based off myself who resembled a member of the Assassin Order. And so I made more progress, and I beat back my depression.
I don't remember what happened after that, but eventually, I found myself staring at my last year at Wayne State, 2014-2015. And due to my schedule, I had a huge three or four hour gap right in the middle of a couple of days. Well, I wasn't going to go home because I lived too far, so I had to use my time wisely and I decided to spend that time writing ROCCO. It's strange, because I can remember writing ROCCO at Wayne's library, but also working on lines from the final scene at the job I had the summer before. I can remember spending the night at the Grosse Pointe Hunt Club, watching over millions of dollars in horses, and writing lines for ROCCO by hand in the wee hours of the morning. So maybe I did some writing for ROCCO the year before actually, the school year of 2013-2014. That doesn't matter. So then, what does?
Well, I managed to finish ROCCO around that time and I even submitted it to TOR publishing. They didn't want it. It's fine; my fault. I called it a dark fantasy when it's actually a Gothic Epic. But the point is, is that I didn't sign up for some webinar or for some online class in order to write and finish my book. I finished my book out of sheer determination and will. I forced myself to write even when I didn't want to. I didn't listen to anyone's fancy advice; I just saw a lot of time available to me and a way I could use it. I wanted to finish my book, so I did.
Now, it is true that since 2015, it has been uploaded to Inkitt and it has gone through multiple revisions. The original draft was 206K words; average novel length is 90K, 110K if you're writing a sci-fi or fantasy novel. So, in steps, I did manage to whittle it down to about 150K. But, I tell you, even to this day, even with it published on Amazon, I'm still making edits and corrections. There's one really big edit I have to make regarding its commas, but no one seems to have noticed it, so that issue is on the back burner, but it is something I'm going to have to address eventually.
But, like I said, the point is, is that I "finished" my novel under my own will power. It took me eight years, a buttload of editing after that, and even editing it now, but I finished it by myself with no support, no webinar, no master class. And here's the thing, so can you. You might think you need a subscription to a group or a mentor so you can stay on task, but you don't. You just need to make your own way. Think of it like this: if it's really that important to you, you'll get it done.
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Stop the clock! Eight and a half minutes left. I think it's better I ended there than try to lengthen it. It does feel short, but I was starting to beat a dead horse toward the end there. But anyway, that's how I finished my book.
Keep writing, my friends.
More About Bryan C. Laesch:
My Works:
Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
Youtube: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
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